Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson

Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson had his debut with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in 2001. Since then he has taken the music world by storm to become one of the most sought-after artists of today and was named Artist of the Year at the Gramophone Awards 2019.

Víkingur made an unforgettable impact with the release of his two albums, Philip GlassPiano Works and Johann Sebastian Bach on Deutsche Grammophon, for whom he is an exclusive recording artist. Praised for revealing new possibilities within the music, Johann Sebastian Bach – featuring diverse original compositions and transcriptions, including Ólafsson's own – has appeared in multiple best albums of the year lists, was named one of the greatest ever Bach recordings in Gramophone, won Best Instrumental and Album of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2019, and was named Artist of the Year at the Gramophone Awards 2019. Ólafsson's previous album, Philip Glass Piano Works was an equal success and saw him named ​“Iceland's Glenn Gould” by the New York Times and ​“breathtakingly brilliant pianist” by Gramophone. Ólafsson's anticipated next album will be launched in the 2019/20 season, with recitals across Europe and Japan.

Ólafsson's coming seasons are marked by a series of high-profile international artist residencies at some of the world's top concert halls. This begins in 2019/20 at Berlin Konzerthaus with fourteen performances over eleven different projects. This season will also see Ólafsson give the French première of John Adams' Piano Concerto No.2 with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (John Adams), as well as concerts with Konzerthaus-orchester Berlin (Christoph Eschenbach), Hallé (Klaus Mäkelä), Hong Kong Philharmonic (Jaap van Zweden), Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Ed Gardner) and San Diego Symphony (Rafael Payare).